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Friday, January 03, 2014

I Didn't Say It ....

Joan Rivers, onJennifer Lawrence after she spoke out against body shaming:

"I love that she's telling everyone how wrong it is to worry about retouching and body image, and meanwhile, she has been touched up more than a choir boy at the Vatican!Look at her posters. She doesn't have a nose, she has two holes. She just has to learn, don't talk if you're doing it."

Again, I like me some Jennifer Lawrence, but unless she wants to have beery single image of herself put out there, unretouched and digitally altered, she might wanna rethink this latest rant.

Marc Lamont Hill, on A&E going ahead with Duck Dynasty:

“They had to make some sort of gesture to make people happy and they did that with the suspension which essentially meant nothing. A&E decided that the 14 million viewers and millions and hundreds of millions of dollars that come with that is worth more than the LGBT community. That was the choice that they made. They were swayed by the market and unfortunately justice lost out this time.”

First off, MLH is hot. Just had to say that.

Secondly, what A&E did was about money because they are in business. If you don't like it, don't watch 'Duck Dynasty'; if that still pisses you off, don't watch A&E and tell them you won't watch them.

"Being open and unashamed about being gay is just one small thing I can do to change the culture and make life easier for people who haven't had my luck. And that's why I'm mystified by prominent gay people in business and media and Hollywood who choose to be in the closet. They have the ability to help lots of people who don't have their advantages, and they're selfishly passing on it under the guise of 'privacy.' Often, they do this while living quite gaily in places like New York and Los Angeles and reaping the benefits of social acceptance in their non-professional lives. Imagine, for example, that you were a prominent daytime news anchor on a national cable news channel aimed at a conservative audience, and you were gay. You would have the potential, by coming out of the closet, to change millions of viewers' perspective on gay people for the better. You'd make it easier for your closeted gay viewers to love themselves, and easier for your viewers' gay children to come out. Or you could live a fabulous gay life with your boyfriend in New York City while staying closeted to the national audience. Wouldn't that be a pretty decadent choice?"

Coming out is the only option. That's my belief and I stand by it.

Stay closeted and you feed the problem.

Lee Daniels, director of Precious and The Butler, on contemplating suicide as a kid because of anti-gay and racist bullying:

"I had a rough childhood growing up – very rough. Oftentimes I wanted to kill myself as a kid. You know, I was bullied because I was gay and then I was bullied because I was black going to an all-white school later on. Thank God I didn’t kill myself, huh? I think that the universe took care and God took care of me. I am the product of that environment.”

Think of what we miss when LGBT youth take their lives; the things they could offer the world, snuffed out because of intolerance and bullying.

Don Lemon, CNN anchor, on Robin Roberts’ coming out:

"I can't speak for Robin Roberts, nor any of my recently out gay colleagues, I didn't do it sooner because I was afraid of losing my livelihood. I was afraid that you would no longer watch me. I was afraid of people like Phil Robertson, who claim to love everyone while simultaneously thinking that everyone's love isn't equal. The people who use religion and scripture to shield bigotry now toward gays and in the past toward women and African Americans. Hopefully for Robin, like me, empowerment quickly replaced fear once I did come out. And if people like Phil Robertson are deserving of keeping their platforms and are even defended and celebrated, then people like Don Lemon, or Thomas Roberts, or Rachel Maddow, or Sam Champion, or Anderson Cooper, or Robin Roberts are also deserving of their platforms and should be celebrated as well. That's why it's still important to come out and say very simply, 'I'm gay'."

4 comments:

Bob,I watch MSNBC almost exclusively. I see Josh Barro often on MSNBC. Besides being an very attractive guy I like what he has to say. I didn't know until I read your posting that Josh was gay. Now I like him even more. Not that much because I do have my own honey now but I really like him, especially what he had to say about closeted gay media celebrities who don't have the balls to come out. And we do know who he is talking about on Faux New, who I will out right now….Shepard Smith. Every body knows he's gay including his co-workers at bosses at Faux News. Who doesn't know are the Yahoo's in the retrograde part of our country that think Duck Dynasty is a holy show. Josh Barro, well said.

RE: A&E and DD. The net effect was that it exposed a lot more of what Phil has to say about everyone else - that will have an impact. The questions moves to How will A&E react to those statements? How will viewers?